Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1887-08-20
raE MoRK OF FIENDs.
C,urt Crime Committed IN Central
Illinois Thirty Years Ago.

.>s.,f, pnt ~ what may be termed "purf
xvN3pe>S" is aStoniShiugly large, and in-
-'s3sS many murders, observes u writer IN
the New Work Ectalag Sun, The death OF
Thar'e> J. Walton, as mentioned in Chi
~a1,f the other day, recalls, the par
p,alA~ ii \ crime Of thirty years ago
whl,h made \ great stir Mt the time, but
~hi,h cau not now be remembered by a
aAsaa persons. At the time OF the murder
Walton Was a boy eleven years of age, and
in the employ Of a farmer m John
N~,srtwrfsht, in Central Illinois. One
rsipN Aav in the fall the two We're Smelling
Nssgx3n an old barn about half q mile from
me farm house. 1t had come to he three
O'clock IN the afternoon, when the farmer,
YSips his knife 70 cut off a piece of tobacco
let il slip through a crack in the floor.
The hov went out doors and crawl
81 ruder IL secure Il. 1t was q
elisa squeeze for him, and he had not
vet reached the spot when he heard
tNr1e men enter the barn. The sound of
their voices proved them strangers in the
ne.ChharAood, The spokesman said they
hAa come to see if the farmer had a horse
Il sell. He replied that he had not, when
one a the men laughed and said:
Come, old fellow, we don't want a
horse We want to see You dance and
hasr ven sing"
The farmer must have realized that they
meant hjm harm, and he began to beg and
haSaeoh and offer TO buy them Off. He had
about 8 dollar in change in his pocket, and
be gave them this, together with a knife
sud pipe. The trio had no ooner stripped
HIM than they armed themselves with
o switches used to drive the oxen and
proceeded 10 whip the poor man until his
screams seemed likely to be heard at the
highway, half a mile off. Young Walton
was terribly frightened, and he explained
why he did not 80 for help by saying;
There was no one at our house but Mrs.
Cartwright, and no neighbor nearer than
q mile and half. AS it was raining, no
Cns would he likely to be passing ON the
raad. And, too, there was such q lot of
rubbish under the barn that | could not
move without making n great noise, and |
ie.t that they would certainly hear me-"
When the farmer began to shout for help
they Knocked him down and gagged him
with a handkerchief, and then their devil
ism thirst for blood became more apparent.
One Of them seized the farmers left hand
and coOlly and deliberately broke every
finger in succession. They pulled off his
boots and applied lighted matches to tho
soleS of his feet, and with their knives
creased the Soles in every direction. They
at first seemed to delight in his violent
struggles, but finally used chains and ropes
to tie him down.
"Whon they had kept up their torture
for about half an hour" he said, "the gag
came loose, and Mr.. Cartwright called
out to them in the name Of God to spare
his life. He offered them $500 he had in
the bank and a decd of his farm il they
would let him go, but they only Knocked
him. One Of them said it was the greatest
sport he had had in twenty years, and an
other said he had always wanted to sec
how much a man could suffer before death
came to relieve him. Most of the timo
they had their victim gagged, so that |
could not hear his voice, except as he kept
up a moaning, but sometimes, when the
gag was loosened, he cried aud begged
or them In a way to melt your heart"
The cutting and s~lashing of tho farmer
did not satisfy the cruel nature of the tor.
mentors. One of them had a muzzle- load.
ing pistol, and he loaded it with small
charges Of powder, and fired them into the
naked body Of Cartwright. Another
stuck his legs full OF splinters. These two
latter modes of punishment furnished the
clew by which the murderers were over.
hauled. When they had been at their in
fernal work for nearly an hour they began
to tire of it.. The farmer was in n dying
condition, and they finished him with Il
knife. The boy heard every word and
movement, and he said:
II heard them talk about finishing the
old fellow off, and there was quite a dis.
pute as to who should use the knife. 1t
was finally decided, and the fellow sharp.
pened the blade on his boot and then kept
thrusting and ~counting-one, two, three.
and SO on up to sixteen, and these were the
number counted on the dead body. / was
lying on my stomach on the ground Just
under the body, and the warm blood ran
through the cracks on my head and
shoulders"
AS soon as the trio had left, the boy
crawlcd out to give the alarm, but II was
nine O'Clock at night before any consider
able number Of men had gathered and the
pursuit was taken up. The men were
tracked to a point north Of Pekin, whore
they stole horses from a field and headed
for Monmouth. To the north of that place
they stole a team, and made for the Mis-
sissippi river, and there all traces of them
were lost. II seems that they stole shan
ty boat and started of down the river,
and were next heard Of three weeks later,
ut the mouth Of the Illinois river. They.
tied their boat TO the shore and roamed
around the country in a lawless way, and
one night n farmer shot one of them in the
leg as he was robhing the hon house. The
man had a pistol, and he fired back at the
farmer and missed. 1t was then knocked
from his grasp, and us he lay on the ground
he gritted his teeth in rage and exclaimed:
"Yon Internal hound! but how I'd like
to revenge on you. I'd like to shoot YOU
full of powder and fill your flesh with
splinters."
The words caught the farmers attention.
lie had rcnd of tho murder of Cartwright,
and he believed he had one of the men.
Giving the alarm to three or four of his
neighbors, they secured the wounded man
and then set out for the boat-house. They
were fired on, but when they had killed
one of the men the other surrendered. Be.
ing charged with the Cartwright murder,
he held out for awhile and then confessed.
Ont of the dozen men who had by this
time gathered together not a voice was
raised to turn the prisoners over to the
sheriff and the law. The one unhurt was
strung up within half an hour of his con.
%fession, and the wounded one a little later
on. When life was extinct the bodies
were weighted and sunk in the river.
just who the men were was never known,
but they were ~ruiilans of the wols st de.
scription, who were probably making their
way to Missouri and beyond ana living on
the country as they went. The one who
confessed said they meant only to rob
Cartwright, but his betrayal of fear an.
pprpd them. md thew killoJ hin, Cor ha;..